The first wooden church of the Makaryev Desert was built in the mid-17th century and consecrated in honor of the Ascension of the Lord. In the early 18th century, as evidenced by the date on the antimins, 1703, it was replaced by a stone church with the same dedication. In the mid-17th century, the monastery practically ceased its activities, and services in the Ascension Church were conducted only occasionally by visiting monks. The restoration of the monastery began in the late 19th century. From 1835 to 1839, the church was renovated and became two-storied. The main altar on the second floor was dedicated to the miraculous icon of the Ascension of the Lord, while on the first floor, there was a right altar in the name of the Vatopedi Mother of God and a left altar in the name of St. Makary of Zheltovodsky. The grave of Isaiah, the founder of the desert, ended up in the outer wall of the Vatopedi chapel, and its exact location remains unknown to this day. The church housed the most revered icons of the monastery: the icon of St. Makary brought by Isaiah and the icon of the Vatopedi Mother of God, delivered in the early 19th century from Athos. The construction of the church was financed by a resident of Sviyazhsk, Nadezhda Ivanovna Savrasova, and the bell tower by Kazan merchant Yevgraf Alexandrovich Lebedev.